Tag Archives: amplified ale works

Two of my favorite things happened to coincide this weekend. My best friend and craft beer….and we do it quite well together. So I jumped at the chance of my best friend getting engaged and San Diego Beer Week. We added 5 new breweries (makes 139!) to the list and some wonderful beer bars.

Brand new to the San Diego beer scene. Amplified Ale Works opened 7 days prior to our visit on November 2nd 2012. A three barrel operation inside California Kebab & Beer Garden. They only had one house beer on tap, a blond called Leggy Blonde. It was really a silly name for how serious this beer was. For those musty Saison lovers, like myself, you will love this beer. Truly one of the best beers of the trip and I’m not a blonde lover.

A very popular brewery in San Diego. This place was hopping on Saturday afternoon. We weren’t able to taste samples because they ran out of glasses. Tried their Pallidus Belgian Pale Ale, which was excellent and one of their IPA’s. They had 750ml of their Anno Duo Imperial Saison (oximouron, perhaps?) in bottle, which I will return for. Very curious of a 9.5% Saison. For Hess being the first licensed nano brewery in San Diego (according to their website) they are doing quite well and opening a second brewery in the North Park district.

One man operation, Dave Hyndman does it all from making his beer to pouring it. Located in an office park like so many San Diego breweries. They opened earlier this year and Dave makes the beers he likes not defined by style. There has been lots of good vs bad arguments about this brewery. Either way, support local breweries by trying out their beer.

My favorite of the day! Rough Draft has only been opened since March (16 new San Diego breweries opened in 2012) but they really thought the layout through. Spacious tasting room with long granite bars and plenty of room for brewing and possibly expansion. The sampler dressed to impress with some of the stand outs being their Belgian Vanilla Stout, Eraser IPA, Emboozlement Tripel, and Hop Therapy a DIPA. They have plans for distributing what people drink the most of. < — Great business model.

A new addition to the North Park area just open a couple of months. Rustic feel with opened windows to the street and beer served in mason jars. I only tried one of their beers the IPA Experimental Batch #4. Delicious! For those that love the floral/citrus notes in IPAs you will love this. We will be back, especially because its in walking distance.

Our Own San Diego Beer Week Pup Crawl

Poor House Brewing –> Ritual Tavern –> Toronado San Diego

I love having friends that live in North Park. So many amazing beer bars!